Zingali’s daughter said the family was still waiting to hear whether he was on the plane, and, if so, whether he was the one flying.

According to investigators, the pilot was flying eastbound on the runway, attempting to take off downwind — a departure some pilots said was not recommended at non-towered airports like Corona.

“The wind’s showing to go this direction, so normal departure is into the wind,” Walt Snyder, a witness, said.

Snyder, who is also a pilot, estimated that the aircraft might have been traveling 90 miles per hour when it crashed.

“He [the pilot] didn’t pull back and he was too fast on the runways,” Voll said. “Then he flipped, and then everybody was running, and it started on fire, and then it had two explosions which probably were the fuel tanks.”

Both the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board have been called in to investigate.